Christians in UK Cannot Be Foster Parents Because They are Morally Opposed to Homosexuality

My last post was about the importance of the debate over same-sex marriage. While many people (including Christians) think it does not matter, I argued that the legalization of same-sex marriage will have a large impact on society as a whole, as well as Christian freedoms.

In that vein, I just read this story today coming out of Britain. A Christian husband and wife, Eunice and Owen Johns, have been denied the right to serve as foster parents due to their convictions against homosexuality. While they have provided foster care to 15 children in the past, social workers recommended that they not be allowed to care for children in the future because they would not agree to instruct those children that homosexuality was morally acceptable. According to the article “Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation ‘should take precedence’ over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.”

Listen up my fellow Americans, while this happened in Britain rather than the United States, the handwriting is on the wall for us as well. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where our own legal system is heading. If our social order fails to make any moral distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality, and fails to make any legal distinction between opposite-sex and same-sex couples, then those who do make such distinctions are bound to be opposed (or at least excluded) by the social order. The legal system cannot promote both social equality and social inequality at the same time. There is a clash between religion and society on this point, and you can bet your bottom dollar that legal norms will be given precedence over religious convictions, the first amendment be damned. We’ve already seen a Catholic adoption agency in Massachusetts being forced to shut its doors because it would not adopt out children to same-sex couples. It won’t take us long to follow Britain’s lead by refusing to adopt out children to people who are morally opposed to homosexuality.

Isn’t it amazing how diversity and toleration works? Rights and equality are extended to the minority, but the price to pay is having rights and equality being taken away from the majority. And we go along with it every time. This debate doesn’t really matter. Remember?

Most reactions from people I know are that it was the wrong ruling in that it amounted to a “thought crime” and while the Conservative politician agreed with the ruling, he did say that something should be done about it (I won’t be holding my breath though).